The story appears on

Page B8

April 3, 2013

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeSportsSoccer

Steelers stun Hiroshima as Sainty beats Buriram

FORMER Asian title-holders Pohang Steelers took a big step towards the AFC Champions League knockout phase and dealt Sanfrecce Hiroshima a potentially fatal blow with a narrow 1-0 win yesterday.

Bae Chun-suk's strike on 17 minutes was enough to put the 2009 winners level on points at the top of Group G with both Uzbekistan's Bunyodkor and Beijing Guoan, who fought out a goalless draw in Tashkent.

But the defeat left J-League champion Hiroshima rooted to the bottom with no points from three games, and needing a dramatic change in fortunes if it is to reach the round of 16 as one of the top two teams.

Elsewhere, FC Seoul survived a late fight-back to beat Japanese visitor Vegalta Sendai 2-1 and extend its lead in Group E, while China's Jiangsu Sainty beat Buriram United 2-0 to rise from bottom to second in the same pool.

In Seoul, the hosts were cruising after first-half goals from Sergio Escudero and Kim Jin-kyu. But they had to endure an anxious finish after Sendai's Brazilian forward Wilson reduced the deficit with an 87th-minute penalty.

Sainty had an easier evening in Nanjing after two goals in consecutive minutes put Thailand's Buriram on the ropes just before half-time.

The hosts were already in the ascendancy when Lu Bofei rifled in a rebound on 41 minutes, and they floored Buriram just a minute later when Sun Ke rose unmarked to head home Ji Xiang's cross from the left.

Sun had a second-half effort flagged off for offside as Jiangsu leapfrogged Buriram and Sendai to lie second in Group E, three points behind FC Seoul.

In Tashkent, the competition's first ever game between teams from Uzbekistan and China proved anticlimactic as Bunyodkor and Beijing Guo'an played out a 0-0 draw at the new Bunyodkor Stadium.

The result left Bunyodkor, Beijing and Pohang all on five points with three rounds of games to go in Group G.



 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend